U.S. sales of full-size trucks slid 4.5% in January 2014 as the two leading manufacturers of pickups reported falling sales of all their big trucks.
Typically the slowest month of the year for new vehicle sales, this past January should be no different, as the U.S. auto industry generated 32,000 fewer sales than it did one year ago. Although minivans, commercial vans, and the vast SUV/crossover segment all expanded, passenger car sales plunged, year-over-year, and truck volume declined, as well.
Despite the Ford F-Series' slight 1% (305 fewer units) drop in January sales, the market share of America's best-selling vehicle in its own vehicle category expanded by more than a percentage point compared with January 2013.
FCA's Ram pickup range improved its January market share by more than four points to the level where one out of every five full-size trucks sold were Rams. Year-over-year, Ram sales jumped 22%.
The only other big truck to report higher totals this year than last was the Toyota Tundra. Toyota has recorded four consecutive months of Tundra increases; only once in 2013 did the Tundra decline. But Tundra volume is well off the pace Toyota set in pre-recession 2007 when nearly 200,000 were sold – Tundra sales jumped 11% to 112,732 in 2013. January market share didn't rise as much as Ford's even as Toyota sold 886 extra Tundras.
GM's losses were the bigger story during a disappointing January for trucks. Silverado sales plunged 18%; Sierra sales fell 13%. In total, GM sold more than 10,000 fewer full-size pickup trucks this January than in January 2013, a 20% drop.
Jointly, the Silverado/Sierra decline to 40,044 January sales resulted in a market share tally of 33.2%, down from 38.3% in January of last year. The GM twins outsold the Ford F-Series by 1450 units in January 2013, the second of three consecutive months in which the pair had outsold the F-Series. They have not done so since.
If we are to assume the two trucks themselves are to blame, rather than some combination of inside and outside forces, we can surely place some responsibility on the conservative nature of the redesign. Perhaps the exterior changes from one generation to the next needed to be as different as the changes made under the skin. It's true, the serious truck buyer is well aware of the newness of the Silverado and Sierra. But the family truck buyer – a big reason for the mass expansion of the truck market – may not wish to pay more money in order to park a pickup in their driveway that doesn't look much different from the pickup their neighbors bought two years prior.
Thus, with plenty of trucks on dealer lots and concern about losing market share to Ford even before the F-150 is replaced by the more boldly-designed 2015 model, GM will ramp up incentives with a long-running Presidents Day promotion, according to Automotive News. Clearly, for General Motors to avoid going head-to-head against Ford without F-150-like incentives would have required a more significant leap forward with the 2014 models. There's a belief that truck buyers will pay more for the better truck, but how much better does that truck need to be?
| Truck | January 2014 | January 2013 | % Change | January 2014 Market Share | January 2013 Market Share |
| Cadillac Escalade EXT | 25 | 172 | - 85.5% | 0.02% | 0.1% |
| Chevrolet Avalanche | 31 | 1939 | - 98.4% | 0.03% | 1.5% |
| Chevrolet Silverado | 28,926 | 35,445 | - 18.4% | 24.0% | 28.1% |
| Ford F-Series | 46,536 | 46,841 | - 0.7% | 38.6% | 37.1% |
| GMC Sierra | 11,118 | 12,846 | - 13.5% | 9.2% | 10.2% |
| Nissan Titan | 887 | 1394 | - 36.4% | 0.7% | 1.1% |
| Ram P/U | 25,071 | 20,474 | + 22.5% | 20.8% | 16.2% |
| Toyota Tundra | 7890 | 7004 | + 12.6% | 6.5% | 5.6% |
| — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Total | 120,484 | 126,115 | - 4.5% | — | — |
| — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Total (Excluding EXT/Avalanche) | 120,428 | 124,004 | - 2.9% | — | — |
from The Truth About Cars http://ift.tt/Jh8LjA
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